Are there really this many variations in Dalmations?

Saw this link on another forum.

http://www.geocities.com/paisleydals/color.html

If there really ARE this many variations in Dalmations, wow who knew??

I mean, longhairs? I'd never heard of that until today...

Interesting !!

That is neat...I wonder how many of those long-coated Dals have been mislabeled "setter mixes"?

Ooooh I love the Paisley Dals website - Hillside showed it to me years ago, it's very entertaining!

That's a really interesting site! Thanks for posting it.

Agree Zoom ! That was my first thought .

I love that site. I've had it bookmarked for several years, and still refer to it for a bit of interesting reading.

I too have had it bookmarked for some years.

I love love love the Paisley site. I actually met a tri color Dal about a year ago at the local shelter, she was a neat lookign dog and if we hadn't been renting I probably would have taken her home with me. Back when I was seriously considering getting a conformation dog a couple years ago, I was going to get a Paisley DalmatiAn. I actually got to know Jess (Sue's daughter and co breeder ) pretty well on MSN. The Paisley dogs have great temperments too. *sigh*

Question, what is a Dalmatian supposed to be like, temperment wise? The only ones I've met have been wierd, crazy and fairly big jerks. One was sweet, but I'm leaning towards thinking it was because he was so fat he coudln't do much else but be sweet.

Supposed to be like? Active, protective, fairly smart. I think. I've known a number, but I can't actually say for certain what they are supposed to be like.

But despite the fact that my grandmother raised Championship Dals for years (mostly before I was born) and bred for temperment, I pretty much share your opinion. Of course, the only one of her Dals (that she bred) I ever met was an ancient half-blind thing that loathed me, but I was a little kid and he was a very old dog. The rest that I have know have been rescues she got once she stopped breeding and a Dal down the street.

The Dal down the street is definately one of the nastier dogs in the neighborhood . . . of the rescues that my grandmother had . . . she had a very sweet little liver bitch whom I liked. There was a black bitch in there that I vaguely remember as being pleasant enough but not trusting me very much (I was a stranger). Her current rescue seems ok, but wary. I didn't get to know her very well, since when I'd walk from my uncle's house to my grandmother's I'd have Sarama with me . . . and that Dal definately wasn't wild about Sarama. Not exactly DA, but making friends was not in the cards.

My guess is that there are a lot of poorly bred Dalmations out there, because of the movie . . . my other guess is that because of their original purpose (carriage dogs) they are distinctly not dogs for everyone.

As for the variations . . . I don't see why there wouldn't be. A few of them might have something else in them a couple generations back . .. but otherwise, with most Dalmations being black, lots of recessive colors could hide for generations before they popped up. Lemons are fairly common, and very pretty . . . my Grandmother had one boarding with her once. She pretty much held the dog (or perhaps its owner) in contempt (though she took good care of it while it was there) for having such a serious fault (though it was a spayed pet . . . but my Grandmother can be like that I fear). But I thought she was a very pretty thing. Pleasant as I recall, but that would have been 20 something years ago.

Lilavati's dead on. Unfortunately i think Dalmations are one of the most "ruined" breeds out there. They're supposed to be highly intelligent, slightly aloof towards strangers, independant enough to work away from their people but loyal enough to take direction, VERY active.

I have only ever met two and they were exactly like eachother. Bouncing off the walls, dog aggressive, goofy and very people loving. Both belong to a byb though so don't take my word for it.

Well Lilavarti nailed it and Milosmom finished it up for her.

I grew up with Dals and with that familarity I was going to get one for my first "me" dog. I did decide that I wanted a breed that was lower energy and took direction a bit better.* The Dals, while smart, do still have a bit of a "whats in it for me" attitude. We had three over the years, a black bitch, Phyllis who may or may not have been a byb dog ( she fit the standard pretty well.) and our two liver males, Simon and Ivan who were from BYBs. All three of them LOVED anyone who we let in the door. However, if someone were to come to the front door ( we always used the back) they were on full alert. There were a couple times that I came home at 2 am or so and they would come tearing downstairs raising Cain until they realized it was me. The first time I did that, Ivan was pretty much airborne going for me. He had the funniest look on his face when he realized it was me, like don't you know it's past your curfew young lady? Phyllis on the other hand, realized it was me sooner and was already placing herself between me and Ivan. (The dogs lived at my dad's and I was only there on weekends.)
Another time, my dad forgot his key in the house and had locked himself out. So when he came back from work, he had to come in the back window. Ivan did NOT like that one bit and stood snarling at this intruder, once again until he realized who it was. Once again, I will reiterate that our dogs LOVED everyone we let in the door. Actually that's not true, Simon hated my cousin. Later we found out that my cousin was bi polar and after he was medicated for it, Simon could stand him.

These were all unknown breedings, though they still had a pretty true to type Dal temperment. I think what a lot of the general public thinks, is that any dog that is shaped like a Lab has the temperment of one. Most people don't realize that DalmatiAns had a function other than looking pretty running with carriages. Their job was to keep stray animals away from the horses and stray people away from the occupents. We had our DalmatiAns before much of the movie hype too.

* So I go an Aussie if that tells you anything...

Ditto.. LOVE their color pictures, especially. That one has been in my bookmarks for ages.

Hillside & Lilavati.. thanks for the great posts.

I compleatly agree with you.

10 years ago We had a dal for like a month, one of my aunt gave it to us, he was 3 years old.

A perfect example of the BYB abusing for a breed popularity. He was EXTREAMELY nervius, stubburn, yappy and he had many other behaviour problems.

He was always jumping on any people shouders or backs, and that was very uncorfable since he was big
also he half destroyed a door in minutes.


He had strabismus in his eyes , His spots where blue but washed out, and he had rose ears, he was compleatly out of standar.

We had to return him to My aunt beacause even if we tried hard in teaching him not to jump over people he never imprubed a little and it was too painfull every time he jumped on us. :/ he used to run first and later jump in a person back or shouder.

And since I had an open heart operation, the doctors had to open my ribs and I have some metal crosses to keep the center of my ribs at place, and that area is a bit sensitive.


This dog is the main reason we are getting a puppy for a good breeder now, beacuase we are tired of the mistakes that irresponsable greedy people that BYB and puppy millers do.

THank you for posting this!
I currently own a Dalmatian which we had found abandoned near my mother's workplace years ago. After months of putting up ads for him, he just never left our house and has very much become part of the family. He's such a lovable silly dog. We had owned a Dal previously and she was a great gentle dog, unfortunately she was poisoned along with a few other neighbourhood dogs in a large-scale attempted burglary.
I find that Dals are highly intelligent and friendly. However, they're also stubborn as they're smart and will find ways to work around you, hence vigilance in training is a must.

Really to me they are no different than any other high drive dog. I grew up with two working Dalmatians and they were two of the best dogs I have ever had. Smart, goofy, energetic, and sweet they were true good Dalmatians. They are alot like American Cocker Spaniels with their bad rep for temperments. But it all has to do with breeding unstable dogs and how they are brought up.

Both of ours were energetic and wild at times but could turn it off and be calm lovers. They brought in the horses and protected the property. They were also trail dogs. Very obedient and well trained and from an extremely reputable working Dal breeder. Great personalities and perfect dogs.

Now I do have to say 8 times out of 10 I do meet wild unstable "jerky" Dals and its sad. I do want a Dalmatian again in the future. I will be buying from that same reputable breeders son who breeds for the same standards. Because I honestly don't trust many other Dal breeders.

Yeah I got to rambling sorry lol. And the site is cool.